


Scaling Buildings

by WardenRoot



Category: Person of Interest (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, F/F, based on a prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-15
Updated: 2018-12-15
Packaged: 2019-09-19 18:08:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,517
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17006580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WardenRoot/pseuds/WardenRoot
Summary: Root taps her fingers on the desk in front of her. She stares at the clock that hangs on the wall above the blackboard, willing the minutes to go quicker and her professor to arrive. She wouldn’t even be in the class if it didn’t require attendance. She turns her eyes to the window, finding the clock too slow moving to pay attention to. She almost jumps in her seat when a hand suddenly appears right in front of her, obscuring her view of the early morning sky.





	Scaling Buildings

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: “You just scaled the building and climbed in the window in order to get to class before our Professor. I’ve never really talked to you before, but that is about to change, believe me.”

Root taps her fingers on the desk in front of her. She stares at the clock that hangs on the wall above the blackboard, willing the minutes to go quicker and her professor to arrive. She wouldn’t even be in the class if it didn’t require attendance. She turns her eyes to the window, finding the clock too slow moving to pay attention to. She almost jumps in her seat when a hand suddenly appears right in front of her, obscuring her view of the early morning sky. Another hand joins the first, followed by a whole upper torso. Root recognizes the woman from her class. She searches her brain for a name as the woman looks at her annoyed, tapping her fingers on the glass. She reaches a hesitant hand out towards the window, looking around to make sure their professor hasn’t arrived yet. The moment she’s got it open a couple of inches the woman sticks a hand underneath it and pushes it up. She easily jumps through the window, nodding at Root as she closes it. 

“Thanks,” she says, out of breath.

“Did you climb up to the third floor?” Root asks, puzzled.

“Yeah.” The woman shrugs. Her eyes scan the room for what Root assumes to be an empty seat.

“You do realize the building has perfectly usable stairs?”

The woman’s eyes flit back to her. She looks at her as if Root had asked her the stupidest question imaginable.

“Mr. Davids will be here any minute. Can’t say I’m in the mood for a lecture on being late.”

Root nods slowly, not quite over the fact that she had scaled the building just to be earlier than their professor.

“Ms. Shaw, would you mind finding a seat so we might start?”

_Shaw_. Root remembers the name, remembers the woman - Shaw - getting called on by their professor quite often. They’ve never talked. Root hasn’t really talked to anyone apart from their professor, and even him as little as possible, preferring her own company. But scaling a building has left an impression on her and she finds herself wanting to know more.

She blinks herself out of her thoughts as Shaw looks expectantly at her.

“What?” she asks, suddenly self conscious.

“Move over, this desk is the only one with an empty seat.”

“Oh.” Root looks around the room and finds that every other double desk already has two students sitting behind them. As she jumps to the next seat the thought that Shaw could have just walked around to the other side hits her, but she ignores it. She can’t say she’s complaining about sitting next to her.

“So, do you scale a lot of buildings?”

Shaw narrows her eyes at her. Root raises a questioning eyebrow.

“When I have to,” Shaw says flatly, turning her attention to the front of the room. Root pouts.

“I’m sure that comes in handy,” Root says, voice laced with flirtation.

Shaw glares at her, but doesn’t offer a reply. It only serves to make Root all the more curious.

The rest of the lesson continues much the same. Root keeps prodding her new desk-mate throughout it, getting curt one word answers or no answers at all. By the end of it Shaw looks like she’s just about ready to murder someone. Root has never had a better lesson since starting college, despite not paying attention to a single word their professor said.

When the class ends, Shaw unceremoniously shoves her notebook in her bag and springs for the door. Root is quick to follow.

“Window not a good enough exit?”

Shaw turns her, rolling her eyes. “Don’t you have anything better to do?”

“Nope.”

 

The next day Root once more finds herself waiting for their professor. Only this time, she’s also waiting for a particular brunette. The clock inches closer to the start of class with no sign of Shaw anywhere. Root can’t help but feel disappointed. She turns her attention to the window, subconsciously waiting for a hand that never appears. She loses herself in the clouds, so much so that she doesn’t notice her classmates filling up the classroom. Or the classmate in particular that sits down next to her. She’s only brought out of her reverie when a hand pokes her shoulder. Root turns to the person in question with a grin.

“Sameen! You learned how to use a door.” Shaw rolls her eyes and withdraws her hand.

“Do you have a pen? Mine doesn’t work.”

“I’m sure I can find  _something_ useful.” Shaw shakes her head, which only spurs Root on. “Does this one work, or would you prefer something longer?” Root’s lips turn up in a smirk as she bats her eyelashes innocently. Shaw snatches the pen from her fingers then promptly ignores her.

 

Their next few shared classes are spent in the same way. They share a desk, with Shaw mostly rolling her eyes at whatever Root says, and Root doing everything in her power to get a rise out of her. Walking together out of class also becomes somewhat of a habit. Shaw acts like she doesn’t care but she never tells Root not to so Root happily follows her.

 

One day Root oversleeps. She’s half in a panic as she gathers up her stuff and runs towards class. She briefly stops outside it and looks up the wall Shaw had scaled the first time they met. She spots her professor heading into the building and makes up her mind, scaling the building is the only way she’ll make it up before him. Hopefully Shaw will already be there and return the favor from the first day they met, opening the window for her. She takes a deep breath and secures her bag over her shoulder. She can’t say she’s scaled a lot of buildings in her life, certainly not three floors, but it can’t be that hard, right?

She bites her lip as she looks for where to start. There’s a window on the first floor, with the window sill sticking slightly out of the wall. Root figures that’s a good enough starting point, climbs the window without much issue. Next she grabs onto one of the bricks to the right of the window, her foot following. She kicks away from the window sill with her other foot, tries to grab onto a new brick, but she falters, her fingers slipping. She screams as she falls through the air, has just enough time to attempt to turn around and soften her fall, but doesn’t quite make it, instead falling on her arm. She curses as she gets to her feet and experimentally moves her arm. A jolt of pain rushes through it. She grits her teeth and resigns herself to taking the normal way into the building, holding her arm close to her chest.

When she gets to the classroom, the professor has already begun the lecture. She sneaks a peak and sees him standing with his back to the room, drawing something on the blackboard. She opens the door as quietly as she can, quickly making her way over to her normal desk, where Shaw is already sitting.

“Root, what the hell,” Shaw whispers as Root carefully sits down next to her.

“What, are you the only one allowed to be late?”

“I wasn’t late.”

“How nice of you to finally join us,” their professor calls, eyes looking straight at Root.

“I don’t know what you mean, professor. I’ve been here the entire class. Right, Sameen?” Root fully expects the eye roll. What she doesn’t expect, however, are the words coming out of Shaw’s mouth.

“Yeah, she’s been sitting right next to me being her annoying ass self for the past ten minutes.”

Root can’t help the smile that graces her lips. Their professor narrows his eyes, then shakes his head and goes back to the lecture. Root lets out a breath of relief.

“Thank you,” she whispers to Shaw. Shaw ignores her.

The rest of the lecture goes by relatively quickly. By the end of it Root’s forgotten all about her injured hand. That is, until she tries to lift her bag, ending in immediately dropping it followed by a yelp of pain. Before she can properly react, she feels a hand grab her arm, turning her around to face Shaw. Eyes zero in on her injured arm as surprisingly gentle hands grab it.

“The hell did you do?”

“I…fell?” Shaw’s gaze flit to Root’s eyes. Root’s helpless to do anything but tell her the truth. “I may have tried to scale the building when I noticed how late I was,” she mumbles, hoping Shaw will let it go. She has no such luck.

“You’re an idiot,” she mutters, twisting Root’s arm. “I’ve got a first aid kid back in my dorm.” Shaw lets go of her arm and starts walking away. Root grabs her bag with her good arm and hurries to catch up with her, trying and failing to hold back a grin.

“I knew you cared.”

“I need my window opener alive.”

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on tumblr @wardenroot


End file.
